Mari Katayama: My Body as Material

Japanese artist Mari Katayama features her own body in a provocative series of works combining photography, sculpture, and textiles. Born with a developmental condition, she has only two fingers on one hand and had both her legs amputated at the age of nine; she has worn prosthetics ever since. In order to fill a deep gap between her own understanding of self and physicality and contemporary society’s simplistic categorizations, Katayama began to explore her identity by objectifying her body in her art. Katayama treats her entire body, body parts, and prosthetics as “materials” to be arranged in photographs, read as soft sculptures, and decorated with lace, shells, and shiny objects. Katayama’s work exposes anxieties that haunt many of us — disabled or nondisabled — living in an age obsessed with body image. One of the most exciting new artists emerging from contemporary Japan, Katayama’s work is featured in this year’s Venice Biennale in Italy. Her exhibition at UMMA, Mari Katayama (on view October 12, 2019 – January 26, 2020), will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in the US. The talk will be moderated by Natsu Oyobe, curator of Asian art at UMMA and the exhibition curator.

Presented in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). Lead support for the UMMA exhibition Mari Katayama is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, the Center for Japanese Studies, the Japan Business Society of Detroit Foundation, and the Herbert W. and Susan L. Johe Endowment. Additional generous support is provided by the Susan and Richard Gutow Endowed Fund and the University of Michigan CEW+ Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Image: Mari Katayama, on the way home #001, 2016, chromogenic print. © Mari Katayama. Courtesy of rin art association.